Answering 10 Questions With Mr 1500

Today, I am pretty psyched to be answering 10 questions over at 1500days.com.  Check it out!  Mr 1500 was the first blogger that I ever connected with and I thought it would be fun to thank him while also taking a look at my personal financial independence origin story.

Financial Idependence Origin Story:

At my startup a couple of years ago, I had a pivotal meeting with a VC who started riffing about the burdens of his success and wealth while we were pitching him for funding.  It really crystallized something for me about the question of how much money and achievement is enough.  Directly after that meeting, I went back to my desk and just started typing about what he had said to me and about claiming financial independence. 

At that point, I knew that I was in a position where I could retire if I had wanted to. I asked myself how I got there? Why did the last part of wealth building seem so much faster and easier than the beginning?  Over the next couple of lunch hours I then wrote more about that and about the miracle of compound interest. 

If I could retire, what the hell am I doing here I asked?  To what end?  Being an engineer, I turned to data for an answer and I started researching how money actually relates to happiness and how much money is enough.

I didn’t know it at the time, but these 20-30 pages of ramblings would become the first handful of posts of what is now this site. Like Peter Parker getting bit by a radioactive spider this was my slightly less cool origin. Somewhere in that transition, I started reading voraciously from some well known financial independence bloggers which inspired me to turn these ramblings into a blog. Since I was totally clueless about blogs, I reached out to several well known bloggers in an attempt to get started and exactly nobody responded… except for Mr 1500days himself! Not only did he respond but we even met for a beer…

The Avengers and Meeting Mr 1500

I knew that I had hit on something when Mr 1500 showed up to the brewery driving a similar modest car as my own, ordered the same beer, and then pulled out the same rewards credit card to pay at the end of a great conversation.  Thus began my introduction to the FIRE community over the past 6 months.  I’ve since snowshoed up a mountain, brewed beer, and shared an April thanksgiving with Mr 1500.  He has given me some awesome advice and also introduced me to a few other FIRE folk who’s blogs I had long been following such as Mr Money Mustache and the Physician On Fire.  I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Mr 1500.  His blog is inspiring with humor, dinosaurs, and tales of getting to financial independence in 1500 days.  He is also just a damn nice guy. Everyone I meet in the community seems to have a story like mine of how Mr 1500 has helped out on something.

I now occasionally work out of Mr Money Mustache Headquarters and as a result have met many many more fellow financial independents and bloggers.  My wife even started jokingly asking me who I am going to meet that day is it “Penny Pincher Pat”, “Dollar Doug, or “Fantastically Frugal Frank?”  I joke back to her that meeting up with other bloggers is like the Avengers assembling but instead of a flying suit or super strength, these modest heroes have super powers like, living on less than half of what they make, the strength of the side hustle, and the power of compound interest.  Part of the reason I ever put these writings out there in a blog was to connect with others and share the adventure. So far this has been a blast and something that I am grateful for.  Another part of why I put this out there is to help others and I am hopeful to do more of that.  Stay tuned and in the meantime if you feel like some fun, check out my answers to Mr 1500’s ten questions at 1500days.com